In a failover system, there are two servers configured to operate in a failover relationship. One of the servers is configured to be the main server that responds to service requests, while the other serves as the backup server and is configured to be unresponsive to service requests. When the main server becomes unresponsive to service requests, the backup server may step in and become responsive to service requests. Thus, when the servers are both operational (failover is in a “normal” mode), only one of the servers is responsive to requests not explicitly addressed to a server. Furthermore, relay agents may be provided in the network to relay communication packets from clients to both servers. The communication path from a relay agent to each server may be different, and is likely also different for the communication path between the failover servers/partners. When communication fails between the relay agent and one of the servers but communication remains operational between the relay agent and the other server, services provided to clients may be impaired if the server to which communication has failed was the responsive/main server in the failover pair.